


You Never Stood A Chance

by Wonderland_Awaits



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Confused!Justin, Every Nine Seconds Canon Compliant, Humor, Insightful!Jennifer, M/M, Michael is just along for the ride, Stoned!Brian, post-5.13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-24
Updated: 2012-10-24
Packaged: 2017-11-16 22:49:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/544701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonderland_Awaits/pseuds/Wonderland_Awaits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Living in their country manor years after Justin left for New York, Jennifer pays Brian and Justin a visit. Revelations are had.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Never Stood A Chance

**Author's Note:**

> Terrible summary, I know. I'll have to work on that. 
> 
> I got the idea for this fic after I read the Queer as Folk books (Every Nine Seconds in particular).
> 
> It's ridiculous and I love it and here goes nothing!

“Mom! What are you doing here?” Justin exclaimed in excitement. He hadn’t seen her nearly enough in the past few months so it was a pleasant surprise that she showed up at his home.  


“Brian invited me over...didn’t he tell you?” She smiled as she said it. It wasn’t at all uncommon for Brian to do something without consulting Justin about it first. It actually made Justin happy because those little gestures were things that proved that Brian cared. Not that he needed those things. After the bomb, Justin would never question Brian’s affection again.  


“He didn’t, but I’m glad you’re here. Come in,” he moved aside to let her in and continued, “Michael’s here, too. I hope that isn’t a problem.” Brian and Michael had been planning their little boys’ night all week. Justin could only imagine that’s why his mother was here--to keep him entertained while they regressed to the age of eighteen.  


“It’s no trouble at all. Have you eaten?” She held up a bag of groceries as she asked the question. She knew that they had terrible eating habits half of the time. Justin was always happy when his mother came to visit--he always got a home-cooked meal.  


“No but you obviously guessed that before you came over,” he laughed in response.  


“Well then let’s get something started, shall we?” She moved passed him and down the hall to the kitchen. 

After they’d eaten and cleaned up the leftovers, Justin decided to make sure that his partner and said partner’s best friend were still alive after the no doubt copious amount of illegal drugs and alcohol they’d gone through at this point.  


“Mom, I’ll be right back,” he started, attempting to excuse himself.  


“Sweetheart, I know you’re going too check on Brian, so why don’t I just go with you?” She laughed as she spoke and Justin only smiled sheepishly. His mom still knew him, even if he hadn’t lived under her roof since he was eighteen.  


“Okay. But I’m warning you now, this probably won’t be pretty,” he grimaced has he stood up. He was honestly afraid to let Jennifer see his partner in an inebriated, so-stoned-he-can’t-stand state. ‘Oh well,’ he thought, ‘She knows how he is.’  


They climbed the stairs and paused just outside the door to Brian’s study/office/media room. It had every amenity that the ad exec could ever ask for, all within reach. Justin sighed as he pushed the door open and a wall of smoke hit him square in the face. ‘Wonderful. They’re fucking blazed,’ he glowered internally.  


Brian and Michael seemed to be oblivious to the door opening and to the two blonds now entering the room. “Christ, what did they do? Burn down a forest?” Jennifer asked as soon as she saw the interior of the room, filled to the brim with smoke.  


“That’s a distinct possibility,” he muttered in response. Why the fuck did Brian have to do this with his mother here? Not that she gave a shit but it still bothered Justin for some reason.  


High as they were, Brian and Michael were reminiscing about their younger days. Like Justin thought, they’d regressed to the age of eighteen. The artist considered this and concluded that this situation could be entertaining.  


“Do you remember the night of our prom?” Brian asked in a slightly whimsical tone. Michael snorted and rolled his eyes at the question.  


“How could I forget? You bought liquor at some shitty little place I’d never heard of, pissed me off, and fucked the guy I might have had a thing with in the room my mother paid for. God, why are we still friends, again?” Michael’s retort was full of sharp words but it was clear that there was no heat behind them.  


Brian only laughed..well, giggled really but there was no way Justin would ever say that out loud to his lover. He might never get laid again.  


“Oh yeah! Shit, I forgot about dragging you to the liquor store with me. You were so freaked out which, if you think about it, is ridiculous seeing the number of times you went to Babylon with me using our fake IDs.” Brian was shaking with laughter the whole time he spoke.  


‘Marijuana,’ Justin mused, ‘how can a plant turn the strong, ever-sarcastic, stoic Brian Kinney into a twelve year old girl?’ He didn’t really care how it happened, he was just happy that it did. He thought Brian was fucking adorable when he was like that.  


“I was not fucking scared! You just didn’t tell me where the fuck we were going and I was worried that you’d come up with some terrible way to ‘have fun’ before the prom that would probably end with us in handcuffs!” Michael returned. Jennifer, to her credit, was trying to conceal her laughter and barely succeeding. She didn’t want to ruin this moment any more than Justin did. They were so out of it that they may or may not remember any of it later. Justin was determined to make sure that they did, if for no reason other than to mock them for the next few weeks.  


“Sure you weren’t, Mikey,” Brian patronized, “sure you weren’t.”  


“Fuck you, Brian. I wasn’t scared.” Michael was laughing now. It didn’t seem to matter if he had or hadn’t been scared that night. They were just enjoying one another’s company. “Ha! Do you remember that bullshit story you tried to get me to believe? About some little kid like, laying in the middle of the floor at the liquor store or some shit?”  


“It wasn’t bullshit, that actually happened. He couldn’t have been older than six. Blond hair, blue eyes, adorable little shit. Don’t ask me why I remember that, I just do, okay? It’s not every day someone sees a child in the middle of the liquor store. Anyway, the little twat though he was smarter than me. I vaguely recall him saying something about how he wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers and I...what did I do? Oh, right, I introduced myself to his stuffed animal and then told him that because of that, we knew each other. You know what that little shit did?” Brian explained all but the last bit in a very calm voice but the end was all but shouted.  


“You’re such a freak, Brian. But go ahead, what did this little kid do? Kick you in the shin and run away screaming? I can’t say that I’d blame him,” Michael chuckled as he ducked a playful swing from Brian.  
At that point, Brian looked over to the spot where Jennifer and Justin were standing near the door. He smiled and waved but continued with his story of the little boy at the liquor store.  


“He said that I was still a stranger and a crazy one at that because I talked about his stuffed animal like it was real. What the fuck kind of six or seven year old does that?” Brian was almost seething. It seems that being shown up by a little kid still pissed him off almost twenty years later.  


“Aw poor thing,” Michael mocked, “shown up by a kindergartner. How pathetic.” This time Brian’s hand didn’t miss its target.  


“Fuck you. Stupid little kid. His mom called for him and looked at me like I had two heads or something and dragged the kid away from me. I tried to make a joke but my humor was apparently lost on the WASP mommy,” Brian sighed heavily.  


Justin was trying to imagine the whole thing in his head and couldn’t help but laugh. An eighteen-year old Brian being shown up by a kid in elementary school. When he looked over to see his mother’s reaction to the mighty Mr. Kinney’s trouncing by a child but saw that she wasn’t laughing. In fact, she looked rather shocked.  


“What is it, mom?,” Justin asked as Michael went on laughing at Brian’s trip down memory lane.  


“It’s nothing, sweetie. I just...say, Brian, you don’t happen to remember the name of that liquor store, do you?” She looked rather anxious to hear his answer. Justin couldn’t help but be confused.  


“Ah, Mother Taylor speaks at last,” he began playfully, “ No, I don’t remember the name of it but it’s now a McDonalds or something as equally unfit for human consumption.” He too seemed to be slightly confused by her question. But then again, he was high...everything was slightly confusing.  


“Oh my god,” was her only response before she turned pale and then, out of nowhere, burst out laughing. Brian, Justin and Michael all looked at one another, unsure of what had caused the sudden fit of hysterical laughter.  


“Um...mom? What’s so funny?” His question went unanswered for a few minutes and finally she looked at him, then at Brian, then again back to Justin.  


“It’s just that...oh god,” she broke off, tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. She left the room and came back a few moments later with her purse. She pulled out a photo and handed it to Brian. His eyes narrowed and then widened, almost comically.  


“No,” was all he said while looking back at Jennifer. She nodded and they looked at one another for the longest time before Michael cleared his throat.  


“So, Rage, are we going to clue JT and Zephyr in on what’s happening here or what?,” he asked the question cautiously. Justin didn’t blame him, really. The look on Brian’s face could be considered dangerous.  


Brian simply handed the picture to Michael who then handed it to Justin. The artist didn’t understand why they were freaking out. It was a picture of him as a child, holding his teddy bear, Gus. He looked from his mom to Brian, then back and finally asked, “Why are we looking at a picture of me as a kid?”  


“Because, Sunshine,” Brian sighed, looking defeated. “You’ve always been a little shit and this proves it.” He lay on his back and crossed his arm over his eyes.  


“Justin, don’t you understand? Brian said blond boy with blue eyes and a teddy bear. In a liquor store that I went to any time your father asked me to restock the liquor cabinet. A time when he saw a ‘WASP’-y mother with said child...Justin, that boy was you,” Jennifer explained.  


“You’re both so full of shit!” Justin let out without thinking.  


“Don’t think so, sonny boy,” Brian murmured, not moving his arm away from his eyes. “You told me the name of your teddy bear...I forgot that but I remember what the damn thing looked like. And obviously your mother remembers the incident, am I correct, Jennifer?”  


Justin looked over at his mother who was nodding. “I thought it was odd to see two boys who were clearly dressed for a formal dance in a liquor store alone...” she trailed off. Justin couldn’t believe any of this. It was just too impossible.  


“Okay, okay, okay. So you met me when I was what, six? And I told you off and called you crazy?” he asked quickly without taking a breath.  


“Yeah, pretty much.” Brian sounded like someone was trying to pull out his teeth. Justin couldn’t help but think that it was slightly adorable that Brian was so upset by this turn of events.  


“Well then, it seems that I’ve always known how to put you in your place,” Justin smirked. “You never stood a chance.”


End file.
